Four Turkish refugees under UN protection who were abducted by armed men in Kenya on October 18 were brought to Turkey and are being held at a police station in Ankara, the Velev news website reported on Wednesday.
Officials from the Ankara Police Department’s counterterrorism unit (TEM) have reportedly contacted the families of the abducted individuals, informing them of their location. The individuals’ lawyers are expected to visit them tomorrow.
The four — Mustafa Genç, Hüseyin Yeşilsu, Öztürk Uzun and Alparslan Taşçı — were among a group of seven Turkish citizens kidnapped in Nairobi in the early hours of Friday. Three others — Abdullah Genç, Necdet Seyitoğlu and Saadet Taşçı — were later released by the kidnappers.
The abductees were asylum seekers registered with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which protected them from forcible return to Turkey.
The Kenyan Foreign Ministry on Monday confirmed the deportation of the four Turks.
Concerns have arisen that the abductions were carried out on behalf of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) due to the individuals’ alleged ties to the Gülen movement. MİT has previously been accused of using extra-legal methods, including renditions, to secure the return of Gülen movement supporters.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by US-based late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following an abortive putsch on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Since the coup attempt MİT has conducted operations for the forcible return of more than 100 people with alleged links to the Gülen movement. The latest cases include Koray Vural, a Turkish businessman who went missing in Tajikistan in September 2023 and was found to be in police custody in Turkey the next month. Emsal Koç, who also went missing Tajikistan in June 2023, was found to be in police custody in the eastern Turkish province of Erzurum when the police contacted his family living in the province.
According to a 2023 report by Freedom House on transnational repression, Turkey has become the world’s second most prolific perpetrator of transnational repression. A wide range of tactics used by the Turkish government against its critics abroad include spying through diplomatic missions and pro-government diaspora organizations, denial of consular services and outright intimidation and illegal renditions.
